Feel the Howard uplift, says Abbott

Putting his best Howard foot forward: Tony Abbott and former Prime Minister John Howard (left).

TONY Abbott says he wants to change Australia for the better - and he has brought out the measuring stick of the Howard era. ''I want people to respect our polity again - as they did in the days of John Howard,'' he told the Country Liberal Party convention in Alice Springs on Sunday.

''I want people to be able to listen to the Parliament and feel uplifted - as they could in the days of John Howard. I want people to be able to see our country abroad, doing good things, helping our neighbours with cash, with regional mateship - as they could in the days of John Howard.''

Mr Abbott accused Treasurer Wayne Swan of ''cooking the books'', and said if he were not doing so, the $1.1 billion 2012-13 surplus would be more like a $14 billion deficit.

Earlier, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said the opposition would wait until the official pre-election economic and fiscal outlook (PEFO) came out 10 days after the election was called and base all its costing numbers on that.

''We commit to being upfront with the Australian people [about costings] early on, and early on means certainly before the Friday [before] polling day,'' he told Sky News.

Meanwhile, the opposition would have the new Parliamentary Budget Office cost some of its policies and some would be costed by ''another process'', which he declined to detail but said ''has integrity''.

Asked whether he would be prepared to scrap policies if the PEFO numbers made them look unaffordable, Mr Hockey said: ''Absolutely … I will not support policies we cannot afford. We are not going to go down the path of making promises that we cannot keep.''